>Santa Graham

Recently a friend of mine mentioned that she knew Santa. Specifically, the Santa that listens to thousands of children every Christmas at the King of Prussia Plaza, outside Nordstrom. Apparently Santa’s name is Graham and he lives in Texas with his wife and has come to work at KOP every December for the past decade. When he first arrives in town he dons suspenders and a plaid flannel shirt and has dinner with my friend Cory and her family. Her little girls only know one Santa, and once a year he comes to dinner…how cool is that? I can only imagine what will happen when somebody tries to tell her oldest daughter that Santa isn’t real. Cory says he is an absolutely lovely man, extremely kind and very spiritual.

So of course, he is now the only Santa I will take my kids to see.

Friday morning Mike took the day off of work and we all piled in the new mini-van and headed to the mall to visit Santa. My mom bought this adorable matching sweaters last year, I guess after Christmas because she didn’t even know Alex was coming till sometime in January. Considering how obsessed Nathan is with trains, the sweaters are perfect. We stood in line for about 45 minutes with lots of other adorable children with expensively dressed mothers. The boys were awesome. I coached Nathan the whole time in line what to tell Santa, that he wanted trains for Christmas, but I knew that painfully shy Nathan would probably clam up and not talk or smile. But Santa jumped right into engaging him, asking him if he wanted trains for Christmas, touching his nose and tickling him.

And Alex didn’t cry. Success.

My opinion of the day…the story of Santa Clause does not interfere with teaching your kids the real reason for Christmas and making sure they know that we have Santa because it’s baby Jesus’ birthday.

>I was at traget last night and the lady at the register asked Max about Christmas ans Max said, “It is Baby Jesus’ Birthday.” I did not prompt him. and the lady behind the register got all emotional saying she has never heard a child say it like that.

>That looks like an awesome Santa. Last night we took our kids to see the Santa at the local car dealership that our neighbor owns. Becca was terrified, but I got her on his lap long enough for them to snap a picture. 🙂